I think one of the reasons everyone went wild over Casey Musgraves’ “Same Trailer Different Park” (2013) was that it felt like real country music is supposed to feel, but rarely does these days -- down home with a pinch of attitude, just enough twang, and mercifully bereft of cheese. They just don’t make ’em like that anymore. Or do they?

Well, apparently someone does: Hot on Casey’s heels is a country-flavored album that’s every bit as endearing, but at the same time carries a little more real-life gravitas that stays with you long after the final notes fade. Amy Black’s “This is Home” (Reuben Records) combines country charm, bluesy grit and a folkie’s knack for creating real-life human beings out of the musical ether.

Part of that may be geographical: Black grew up in Missouri and Alabama and has southern storytelling in her soul, but moved to Boston as a teenager and brings a certain urban sophistication to songs like sultry album opener “Nobody Knows You.” Not that country simplicity isn’t also abundant -- the sweet, lilting ballad “Alabama” makes touching mention of honeysuckle, kudzu and the battle cries of fireflies, and the up-tempo stomper “Cat’s in the Kitchen” paints a perfect picture of a hot, lazy southern summer.

But the heart of “This is Home” is in the songs that paint an entirely different landscape, one of ragged hearts and souls. Broken homes are abundant on the album, most caustically on the guitar-driven indictment “Stronger” -- “Couldn’t you have been a little stronger?” she asks her missing husband -- and on the wrenching marriage obituary “We Had a Life.”

Black also takes a rare look at parents and a child’s helplessness in the face of their problems. On the sad, twangy “Make Me an Angel,” the singer doubts her own ability to help her suffering mother, knowing deep down that “If God made me an angel, I think I’d know by now.” And on the stunning lament “Hello,” she struggles with her father’s dementia during a nursing home visit: “Remember me Dad? I’m your youngest daughter.”

The beauty of “This is Home,” though, is that despite some heavy subject matter, it isn’t nearly as dark as it sounds. The country/blues melodies elevate even the most melancholy material to a place of warmth and hope, particularly on heartfelt paeans to home, family and perseverance like “I’m Home” and Black’s take on Rodney Crowell’s “Still Learning How to Fly.”

And all through, Black’s voice is flush with feeling and a lived-in resolve -- not to mention a beautiful smoky tone that evokes both Bonnie Raitt’s growl and Mary Chapin Carpenter’s lonely lilt. Black recently left her “day job” to pursue music full time, and if “This is Home” is any indication, corporate America’s loss is a gain for anyone who likes meaningful, moving country songcraft.